Most organizations have a formal process tied to their annual strategic planning, and many business leaders are aware that the strategic planning process is different at each level of the corporation. Because each level tackles a different strategic question, the...
Marketing Minutes
Value-Based Insight Development: The Key to Challenger Sales
Customers already know that your brand and your product are great, but the problem is they feel the exact same way about your direct competitors. Yet, so many corporate salespeople continue to live and die by the same old script: simply build relationships and...
Ten Questions any CEO Worth Their Salt Must be Able to Answer
Too many CEOs lack customer focus. Here are ten questions you as a CEO can answer to test your level of customer focus. In addition, you might want to give this test to your marketing intelligence team or better yet, your board. 1. Do you know with any certainty what...
Customer Loyalty = Increased Profits
The Customer Loyalty Matrix is a tool used to evaluate the loyalty of your current customer base. Each circle on the matrix represents a group of your current customers. The crosshairs on the matrix represent the MARKET averages on Quality and Price, which means that...
Business Unit Planning: The Product/Market Matrix
Planning at the level of a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) requires an answer to the question: “Where do we choose to compete?” Put another way, the question becomes, “Where shall we focus limited resources in order to compete most effectively?” The most systematic way...
Value Stream Analysis
Every organization has one or more value streams, each of which is comprised of numerous processes, activities, inspections, and decisions. Value streams begin with a customer inquiry into a product or service, and end with the delivery of, and payment for, that...
Competitive Marketing Strategy: Product/Market Planning
Planning at the level of products and markets will answer the question, “How does the organization compete effectively?” And answering that question requires your planning team to address four additional questions: What is the Organization’s Current Value Proposition?...
Business Unit Planning: The Product/Market Matrix
Planning at the level of a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) requires an answer to the question, “Where do we choose to compete?” Put another way, the question becomes, “Where shall we focus limited resources in order to compete most effectively?” The most systematic way...
Success Stories: Manufacturer in Declining Industry Makes Breakthrough Market Share and Profitability Gains.
A small manufacturer of conveying, drying, and blending equipment for the plastics industry found itself in the unenviable position of actually losing market share in an industry that was in decline. With many plastics manufacturers taking operations offshore, the...
Why Value is More Important than Satisfaction
Central to the stated or postulated discipline of Six Sigma, as opposed to the current practice of the discipline, is the role and importance of the VOC (voice of the customer) in driving the application of Six Sigma principles and methodologies. For many...